The Royal Mask commemorates the party that trade unions and the main Barcelona institutions celebrated on the occasion of the proclamation of Charles III as king, and the entry of the new monarch and the royal family into Barcelona in 1759. The plates, made by engravers A.J. Defehrt and Pasqual Pere Moles, based on the drawings of Francesc Tramulles and Roig, reproduce the paintings formed by the carts and the mythological troupes that participated in the aforementioned cavalcade.
One of the points in which more resources are invested in the party was in the retinues of the allegorical parade or Royal Mask. As Joan-Ramon Triadó summarizes: ” On this occasion, they wanted to represent the world – land, sea and air – by the genies and gods with which Antiquity considered it formed. The ensemble was divided into three parts: Jupiter, with the celestial numens, Saturn with the terrestrial ones and Neptune with the sailors, who headed their retinues formed by bands of music, extras representing the guilds and schools, torch bearers and rich carriages occupied by important personages. » It is not known who was the author of the entire idea, but it is known who directed its realization: the brothers Manuel and Francesc Tramulles, the most active artists in the city at that time.
The commemorative album of the festivity consists of a total of twenty-six sheets, twelve of which have full-page images. It heads the dozen, a first sheet that serves as the frontispiece of the following eleven that reproduce the carnival entourage composed of troupes with mythological deities that was offered to Charles III on the occasion of his arrival in Barcelona in October of the year 1759, coming from Naples and accompanied by his wife Maria Amàlia of Saxony and the entire royal family. The ensemble is a clear testimony of the Catalan will to flatter King Charles III, who was proclaimed the new sovereign in place of his brother Ferran VI who had died without issue.
At the foot of the illustrations we find the authorship of the compositions clearly referenced. On the one hand, in the lower right corner with the traditional Latin formula is cited “Defehrt Sculpsit“, , referring to the recorder. On the other hand, in the lower left corner, we find the signature of Francesc Tramulles, who was the author of the preparatory drawings and where the Latin formula “Franciscus Tramullas Fecit Barcinone”is again used .
It is also necessary to highlight the profane and mythological themes that unfold in these scenes. And it marks a turning point, a change in an artistic landscape eminently dominated until then by religious themes. The Mask will become, on the one hand, a point of reference for subsequent generations of Catalan engravers and on the other hand, it establishes an iconography of allegorical festivals that will be repeated systematically from then on and will have a great impact.
In the technical field, the etchings of the work were printed following the technical procedure of chalcographic engraving, on metal copper plates, some of which were worked on or retouched afterwards with burin in order to create effects of more intense relief. The plates are part of the collection of the Gabinet de Dibuixos i Gravats del Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.
The Royal Mask is the best illustrated work of a commemorative nature in the entire Catalan bibliography, and even in the Spanish one. A publication printed in Barcelona in 1764 in the workshops of the royal printer Tomàs Piferrer (1715 – 1775), with the aim of presenting the king with a graphic album that would perpetuate the images of the allegorical festivals with which Barcelona celebrated the pass through the city of the royal family.
Thanks to the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, one of the most original engraving plates in the ensemble can be seen at the Baroque Museum. This is plate number VII, which presents the chariots of Diana, Ceres and Vulcà. Each of the characters is presented on a float accompanied by all their identifying iconographic elements.
At the bottom of the plate you can read “7ª Lamina dela Mascara Real executada por los Gremios de la Ciudad de Barcelona, al arribo de su Monarca Dn Carlos Tercero, Conla Reyna, y su Real Familia. / 1. Carro de Diana 2. Carro de Ceres 3. Carro de Vulcano “. The numbers also found on the illustrated page help to identify each of the protagonists of the scene.
According to Francesc Quílez, the plates designed by Tramulles and engraved by Defehrt reproduce, with a visual language very close to the aesthetics and the figurative culture of Rococo of French origin, with a very refined taste, of great decorative elegance and exquisite sumptuousness. An artistic interpretation of a celebration that constitutes, for its extraordinary compositional quality, as well as its formal beauty, one of the most important milestones in the history of Catalan engraving.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Quílez Corella, Francesc M. / García Cárcel, Ricardo. (2001). La Màscara Reial. Festa i al·legoria a Barcelona l’any 1764 . Catàleg d’exposició. Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.
